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Senecio ampullaceus; photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2018-04-02

Senecio ampullaceus Hook.

Texas ragwort; Texas Groundsel

Asteraceae · Texas, Mexico Northeast

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Senecio ampullaceus, photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senecio ampullaceus, photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senecio ampullaceus, photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senecio ampullaceus, photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senecio ampullaceus, photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY)Senecio ampullaceus, photograph (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.7°C
Record low -16.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
999mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
17–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Senecio ampullaceus, also known as Texas ragwort, Texas squaw-weed, Texas groundsel,

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Senecio ampullaceus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Senecio

Senecio is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes groundsels and some ragworts. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus Senecio is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Plants of the World Online currently accepts 1482 species.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Senecio", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (737 mm of 1,003 mm) takes 8 months, February to March, May to June and September to December. Mean temperature moves 19.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to June, August to September and November to December.

Rain

1,003 mm in the median year at the habitat, 737 mm of it February to March, May to June and September to December. Wettest month October at 117 mm, driest month August at 61 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 749 mm to 1,234 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 999 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,003 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.7 °C, the absolute minimum -16.2 °C, 968 frost nights in 44 years, 22.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.9 °C to 7.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.5 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -10 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Senecio ampullaceus through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.8 °C; 1,003 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-16.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 17–43RH 56–60%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 865 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 14–1818 / 16–2022 / 20–2426 / 25–2729 / 28–3032 / 32–3334 / 33–3535 / 34–3531 / 30–3226 / 25–2821 / 19–2317 / 14–19
Night °C6 / 4–88 / 6–911 / 9–1315 / 14–1619 / 18–2023 / 22–2324 / 24–2524 / 24–2521 / 20–2216 / 15–1811 / 10–137 / 5–9
Rain mm70 / 37–9172 / 47–10179 / 56–10772 / 56–91114 / 87–130110 / 95–12563 / 51–8661 / 49–8082 / 72–104117 / 83–13085 / 50–11978 / 42–107
DLI19 / 18–2023 / 22–2429 / 28–3035 / 35–3737 / 37–3940 / 39–4243 / 41–4440 / 38–4133 / 32–3426 / 25–2720 / 19–2117 / 16–18
RH %58 / 56–5958 / 56–5958 / 55–5957 / 54–5960 / 58–6159 / 57–6157 / 54–6056 / 53–5957 / 55–5957 / 56–5858 / 56–5958 / 56–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 865 grid cells holding the 1482 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1181:1668 (30.925, -96.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 865 distinct grid cells holding 1482 of the 1482 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1181:1668 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 117 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas, Mexico Northeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker30.318, -97.295 · in the densest population, 962 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1700 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1482 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 541 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 21 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 218 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1700 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Senecio ampullaceus, photograph 1did not loadSenecio ampullaceus, photograph 2did not loadSenecio ampullaceus, photograph 3did not loadSenecio ampullaceus, photograph 4did not loadSenecio ampullaceus, photograph 5did not loadSenecio ampullaceus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Holly Bonorden Jentsch, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cleome erosa Cleomaceae Vitis mustangensis Vitis mustangensis Mustang grape Photo: CC BY, Linda Jo ConnBothriochloa longipaniculata Bothriochloa longipaniculata Longspike silver bluestem Photo: CC BY, JulienUrochloa texana Urochloa texana Texas millet Photo: CC BY, Linda Jo Conn Crassula drummondii Small-leaf pygmyweed Cnidoscolus texanus Cnidoscolus texanus Texas bull-nettle Photo: CC BY, matutinaltina

Other Senecio 118 in the reference

Senecio achilleifolius Senecio achilleifolius Redstem Ragwort Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloSenecio altissimus Senecio altissimus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Connor Connolly-MoylsSenecio angulatus Senecio angulatus Cape ivy Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaSenecio antandroi Senecio antandroi Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Pieter PelserSenecio arenarius Senecio arenarius Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetSenecio argyreus Senecio argyreus Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Todd BolandSenecio atratus Senecio atratus Tall blacktip ragwort Photo: CC0, author not stated Senecio baccharidifolius Asteraceae Senecio behrianus Asteraceae Senecio bigelovii Senecio bigelovii Nodding ragwort Photo: CC0, author not statedSenecio bipinnatisectus Senecio bipinnatisectus Australian fireweed Photo: CC BY, William HarlandSenecio biserratus Senecio biserratus Jagged Fireweed Photo: CC BY, John Barkla all 119 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Senecio ampullaceus var. ampullaceus; Senecio ampullaceus var. floccosus; Senecio ampullaceus var. glaberrimus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Hook.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Northeast
Wild records
1700 in range · 541 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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